in honor of our veterans and serving soldiers

On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the survivingDoolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time.

They once were among the most universally admired and revered men
in the United States. There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942,
when they carried out one of the most courageous and
heart-stirring military operations in this nation’s history. The
mere mention of their unit’s name, in those years, would bring
tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.

Now only four survive.

After Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with the UnitedStates reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turnthe war effort around.

Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough toJapan for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daringplan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they couldtake off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had neverbefore been tried—sending such big, heavy bombers from acarrier.

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James
Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet,
knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They
would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a
safe landing.

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind ofthe plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take offfrom much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had countedon. They were told that because of this they would not haveenough fuel to make it to safety.

And those men went anyway.

They bombed Tokyo, and then flew as far as they could. Fourplanes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of theRaiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed.Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crewmade it to Russia.

The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to itsenemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, nomatter what it takes, we will win.

Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated asnational heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produceda motion picture based on the raid; “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,” starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic andemotional box-office hit, and the phrase became part of thenational lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film, MGMproclaimed that it was presenting the story “with supreme pride.”

Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion eachApril, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a differentcity each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson, Arizona, as agesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiderswith a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved withthe name of a Raider.

Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is
transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away,
his goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion,
as his old friends bear solemn witness.

Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Specialcognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when JimmyDoolittle was born.

There has always been a plan: When there are only two survivingRaiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, andtoast their comrades who preceded them in death.

As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February,Tom Griffin passed away at age 96.

What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a
mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill
with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to
Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured,
and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.

PLEASE SEND THIS ON TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK, ESPECIALLYTO THOSE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW ABOUT THESE GUYS. THIS SHOULDBE READ BY EVERY KID IN GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL SO THEY KNOW WHATHAPPENED.

-- david - only thru kindness can this world be whole . If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure. Dan Quayle

God bless all of these men and their families, we can only hope that the time will never come when we have to send a group of men over to bomb another country like this mission….but, they had the heart and bravery to do what was asked of them, and then lived with it for the rest of their lives..

The selflessness of these men, the sheer guts … there was apassage in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that,on the surface, had nothing to do with the war, but thatemblematizes the depth of his sense of duty and devotion:“When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home,he visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursinghome, fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home herclothes. At night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then hewalked them up to her room the next morning. He did that forthree years until her death in 2005.”

So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: DickCole (Doolittle’s co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite,Edward Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They havedecided that there are too few of them for the public reunions tocontinue.

The events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. Ithas come full circle; Florida’s nearby Eglin Field was where theRaiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town isplanning to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day celebrationof their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.

Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped savethe country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of theirsacrifice? They don’t talk about that, at least not around otherpeople. But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach thisweek, and if you should encounter any of the Raiders, you mightwant to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell you fromfirsthand observation that they appreciate hearing that they areremembered.

The men have decided that after this final public reunion theywill wait until a later date—some time this year—to gettogether once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That iswhen they will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowingby too swiftly now; they are not going to wait until there areonly two of them.

They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.

You are Welcome Sir, and Thanks to my Brother Scott for sending this along to me last night.I got tears in my eyes reading it…The word “Hero” gets thrown around a lot these days, these Gentlemen, are the genuine article…

thanks mike and your brother, and anyone who brings light to there lives and sacrifice, its a terrible shame that today’s young ones have no idea about what these men did, they ARE real men, who fought for a Real cause, I wish i could meet them, shake their hands and let them know im one american who is grateful for all that they did…

A fitting tribute David for some very brave men. Although this is a well known story for us older folks I’m pretty sure a lot of younger people haven’t heard it before. Those airmen knew how dangerous the mission was, but still volunteered for it.

My father and 5 uncles served during WWII. One of my uncles got a bronze star and he also was one of the 2 survivors from his company in the battle of the bulge. Another uncle flew a lot of bombing missions from England as a gunner. A 3rd uncle was a seaman on a jeep carrier in the pacific which participated in almost every major sea battle in the Pacific and it so badly damaged it was nearly sunk on three different occasions. Three of my uncles were infantrymen, My dad was a medic and my youngest uncle (18) was a paratrooper. Non of these men ever talked about the war after they returned home, so I don’t have many details about what happened to them. Our family was very lucky as they all returned home alive. I’m sure almost every family in the U.S. had serving members at that time and of course many since in the frequent wars we have fought. We owe all the defenders of our nation a debt of gratitude and a whole lot of respect, whether or not we agree with the necessity of any particular conflict.

It’s amazing that LJ members from all over the world including enemies from the past and even some from the present are able to share their work and stories here and get along so well while our countries cannot. I’m not naive about international affairs, but I do find it disheartening that we still haven’t achieved a peaceful world after so much sacrifice. At least we still have this little dot of light to hang onto.

Hope you don’t mind, I shared this on my FB page. I ‘m afraid that the younger generation are not being taught about what makes America great. I am appalled by the lack of knowledge about American history. Before I retired, I worked with a couple of 20 somethings and their lack of knowledge and their attitude about it simply stunned me. My father served in WWII with Merrill’s Marauders in the CBI theater and I’m sure not many have heard that story even though the was a movie about them too. My father didn’t speak about the war either but did share some non battle stories later in life.
I’ll close on this note, for all of you Vets out there—Thank you for your service!Rick